Elias Barzilai

In January 1936 he was appointed Chief Rabbi of the Jewish Community of Athens because of his broad education and linguistic abilities.

Germany occupied western and central Macedonia (including Thessaloniki), the Evros prefecture on the Greek-Turkish border, the surroundings of Athens, most of Crete, and the Greek islands in the northern Aegean Sea close to Turkey.

Italy took the rest of mainland Greece, eastern Crete, and the Greek islands in the southern Aegean and the Ionian Sea.

[4] On July 14, 1942, an incident took place that later would prove favorable for the persecuted Jews: a group of extreme right-wingers of the fascist Hellenic Socialist Patriotic Organisation or ESPO (Ελληνική Σοσιαλιστική Πατριωτική Οργάνωσις, ΕΣΠΟ), incited by the Germans, invaded the offices of the Community.

[5] On September 21, 1943, Barzilai succeeded in denying the Germans to access the lists of the Jewish community members.

He faced down and outwitted SS Captain Dieter Wisliceny who ordered him to produce a list of all Jews in the city including their addresses and assets.

[1] That night, Barzilai burned all new membership cards and he secretly gathered the city's Jews in the synagogue to advise them to disappear, to leave their homes immediately, flee as far as possible, and not tell anyone about their escape plan.

"[1] The next morning he stood in front of Wisliceny, without lists, but with the certificate of the German Police from 1942, from which it emerged that all archives had been stolen as a result of a break-in.

It was decided to meet with the Archbishop of Athens Damaskinos and ask refugee for the Jews to be hidden in churches and monasteries and with the collaborationist Prime Minister, Ioannis Rallis, accompanied by members of the community, to ask for their assistance.

[5] Damaskinos offered to enable him to flee to the Middle East which was not accepted by the Chief Rabbi because he would be obliged to leave his family in Greece.

[2] The Chief Rabbi also appealed to the Greek Resistance and as a result of his intervention, the National Liberation Front (EAM) undertook to help those Jews who would flee to the mountains.

[8] After six months they came to Velouchi and then finally to Petrino in Karditsa Prefecture, near the headquarters of ELAS, the People's Liberation Army, the military arm of EAM.

Although around 800 Jews were arrested by the Germans and deported later on 24 March 1944 to the extermination camps, due to the intervention of Barzilai, the assistance of Archbishop Damaskinos, and of the Athens Police Chief Angelos Evert, who issued false identification cards, the losses of the Jews in Athens totalled about 1,000 people.

At a ceremony that took place at the Synagogue of Athens on February 23, 2020, the role of Barzilai was commemorated by the Director of B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem who presented a Jewish Rescuers Citation in honor of the Rabbi to his descendants.